Isolation and purification of high quality nucleic acids are critical steps in molecular biology procedures. A number of methods have been reported for the isolation of single and double stranded DNA from biological fluids such as human blood, serum, cultured cells, as well as plants, animal and human tissues, and other specimens. Many different procedures have been described. See, for example, Taylor, J. I., et al., J. Chromatograpy A, 890:159-166 (2000); Ahn, S. C., et al., BioTechniques, 29:466-468 (2000); Scott Jr, D. L. et al., Lett. Appl Microl., 31:95-99 (2000); Lin, Z, and Floros, J., BioTechniques, 29:460-466 (2000); Smith, C. E. and York, C. K., U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,945 (2000); Mrazek, F. and Petrek, M., Acta Univ. Palacki. Olomuc., Fac. Med. 142:23-28 (1999); Hawkins, T., U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,071 (1999); Hawkins, T., U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,628 (1998); Davies, M. J., et al., Anal. Biochem. 262:92-94 (1998); Levison, P. R., et al., J. Chromatography A, 816:107-111 (1998); Rudi, K., et al., BioTechniques, 22:506511 (1997); Kotsopoulos, S. K., and Shuber, A. P., BioTechniques, 20:198-200 (1996); Boom, W. R., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,809 (1993); Reeve, M. A., WO 91/12079 (1991); Sambrook, J., et al., in: MOLECULAR CLONING, A LABORATORY MANUAL, 2ND EDITION, 1.21-1.45 (1989), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Most of these procedures are time consuming, tedious, and costly. In addition a number of these procedures involve the use of hazardous organic solvents.